Friday, September 23, 2005

One New Law Would Say It All:If I could enact one new law, I would make it mandatory for every elected official or their spokesperson to respond to any question asked of them that began with any of the following:* Did you* Didn't you* Do you* Don't you* Can you* Can't you* Could you* Couldn't you* If you* Should you* Shouldn't you* Were you* Will you* Won't you* Would you* Wouldn't youwith an initial "yes" or "no" . The "yes" or "no" would have to be, by law, the first words in the elected official's or their spokesperson's response to the question, whether that response was verbal, written, or recorded. All rhetoric would have to follow, by law, the initial "yes" or "no" response. The law would also make it illegal for any form of reporting to the public to edit-out, delete, or move the "yes" or "no" in the response given by the elected official or their spokesperson. They ( the reporting media ) could choose to not report the response, but they could not edit the response( this would apply only to responses that require an initial "yes" or "no" in them ). I would accomplish getting this before Congress by holding a special election on the adoption of this law that the public would vote "yes" or "no" on. No other subject of any kind would be on the ballot of this vote. I believe this law would be constitutional because it would not prevent an elected official or their spokesperson from elaborating on the nuances of their responses. For example, an elected official or their spokesperson could respond:" Yes, and here's why we can't ( or can ) " or "No, and here's why we can't( or can ) ". I would include in this law an annual update of the list of words that start questions that must be responded to with a " yes " or " no " initially. This list would be updated by choices voted on by the public only. Once words were added to the list, they could not be removed ( aka voted off ). The penalty for not responding to a question that began with words from the approved list with an initial "yes" or "no" would be the suspension of the activities the question was directed at until such a time as an initial "yes" or "no" response could be provided. I believe this legislation could be written on a single sheet of paper, probably double-spaced.

* It is important not to confuse the word response with the word answer in writing this law, as all politicans or their spokespersons respond to questions, but they never answer them.